Dynamic interface pressure distributions of two transtibial prosthetic socket concepts.

In this study, we investigated and compared the dynamic interface pressure distribution of hands-off and hands-on transtibial prosthetic systems by means of pressure mapping. Of the 48 established unilateral amputees recruited, half (n = 24) had been wearing pressure-cast prostheses (IceCast Compact) and the other half (n = 24) had been wearing hand-cast sockets of the patellar tendon bearing design. We measured the dynamic pressure profile of more than 90% of the area within each prosthetic socket by means of four Tekscan F-Scan socket transducer arrays.

Effect of decoupled azimuthal and zenithal anchoring on smectic-C chevron structures.

We present a study of the effect of decoupled azimuthal and zenithal weak anchoring on the transition between C1 and C2 chevron structures in smectic-C liquid crystals. We consider temperatures below the SmA-SmC transition and assume that the value of the smectic cone angle can be regarded as constant through the cell. By standard Euler-Lagrange minimization of the total energy we obtain a simple analytical expression for the equilibrium director twist angle in the C1 and C2 chevron states.

Mechanical actions on nanocylinders in nematic liquid crystals.

We apply the Landau-de Gennes theory to study the equilibrium problem that arises when a cylinder of radius R is kept at a given distance h from a plane wall. We assume that both the lateral boundary of the cylinder and the wall enforce homeotropic anchoring conditions on the liquid crystal, which prescribe the liquid crystal molecules to stick orthogonally to the bounding surfaces. Typically, in our study R ranges from a few to hundreds of biaxial coherence lengths, where a biaxial coherence length, which depends on the temperature, is a few nanometers.